“I can’t let you go.”

The High Priest began to emit his power, his eyes marked with the pentagram. The power of the god of death absorbs life force. Anyone touched by the High Priest would have their life force drained away and their body decaying.

Phileal felt the same confidence. He believed he wouldn’t lose to the current High Priest. However, he didn’t truly want to engage in a serious fight. He just wanted to escape this place and find Anais.

Moments ago, he felt as if his world had collapsed, but now he realized there was someone who would accept him.

He understood that helping Anais against the High Priest’s wishes was what he truly desired.

“You never listened to me.”

“I did before I met Anais.”

“What good does it do to have listened before?”

“Just like how the High Priest treated me well only until Lilith Isadora appeared. What’s the difference?”

“You’ve become insolent.”

The High Priest was not a martial artist. Although Phileal wasn’t a swordsman, he was well-trained. Being the third power in the temple of death meant he had to participate in external activities often. With Leviathan not fully participating, Phileal had to step in for him.

“Why did you take Anais?”

“I won’t tell an enemy.”

“Where did you take her?”

“I can’t tell you.”

The High Priest prepared for battle summoning a spear of divine power. Similarly, Phileal reluctantly conjured a long spear.

“I wish you would just tell me.”

“You always wear your heart on your sleeve.”

The High Priest of Death swung his spear in a wide arc and aimed for Phileal’s head.

Tang! Phileal parried the blow and attacked the High Priest’s shoulder.

The side was aflame, hot from the rising fire. The spot where Phileal and the High Priest stood was precarious, as if a slight misstep would turn them into offerings.

“Don’t make me do this.”

“You’ve come to this point yet you can’t let go of me.”

The High Priest looked at him coldly and thrust his spear towards Phileal again. Phileal blocked the attack and, with an ax-like motion, pushed forward with all his might, forcing the High Priest back.

At that moment.

“This makes things simple.”

“Leviathan!”

“Ugh…!”

Leviathan struck the High Priest’s side with a spear he summoned. The High Priest staggered towards the altar, causing Phileal to throw his spear towards a nearby tree.

“High Priest!”

Thanks to that, the cloth on High Priest Mephist’s shoulder got stuck on the altar. The High Priest had nowhere to step. The spear stuck in his shoulder saved him from being consumed by the fire. Had he fallen there, he surely would have died without a trace.

“What are you doing?”

“I have to save the High Priest!”

“In this situation, you think he’ll just let you go?”

“Ah…”

Phileal hesitated, seeing the High Priest looking at him, but he was certain that if he didn’t save him now, Leviathan wouldn’t leave the High Priest alone.

“You fool!”

Summoning chains over the spear he had thrown, Phileal transformed the spear into a scythe, hooked it onto the High Priest’s clothes, and dragged him up. Leviathan looked like he wanted to kick Phileal away in frustration.

“Ugh…!”

Phileal managed to struggle to pull the High Priest out to safety. The High Priest looked utterly defeated, as if shocked by his own survival.

“How can you be so foolish?”

“I don’t care what you say. Just tell me where Anais is.”

The High Priest didn’t plan to answer. However, feeling a sense of guilt he hadn’t felt before due to Phileal’s earnest gaze, he began to open up.

“Please.”

“If you die, I die too! Please stop this! The god of death doesn’t want this!”

Recalling Phileal’s emotional outburst when he refused the will of the god of death, the High Priest had wished Phileal would leave him to die. Yet, Phileal, even in his anger, couldn’t bear to see him die and saved him, prompting the High Priest to finally speak.

“She would be dead by now.”

“What do you mean?”

“Lilith Isadora’s body must become the offering.”

“What, what do you mean…?”

“By offering the saint, Decarve’s power will transfer into Anais Percival’s body.”

The High Priest recalled that this was Lilith’s intention and struggled to open his mouth. He spoke as if everything should have concluded by now.

Even if he failed, the priests of death in Reinberg Forest would have completed the task. Then, as a consequence, they would destroy everything created by goddess Julias.

“If you ever thought of me as a daughter, follow my words.”

As Lilith Isadora wished.

The High Priest sighed, recalling the moment Lilith spoke to him.

“But the person inside…”

“It’s for the best for all of us.”

Phileal didn’t blink as he looked at the High Priest and asked again in shock.

“High Priest, what did you just say… You’re planning to sacrifice Anais?”

The High Priest of Death knew that Lilith had not intended for Anais to be part of the sacrifices. Yet, the sacrifice of one saint could be more valuable than many living sacrifices to come.

“Don’t include Lady Anais in this plan.”

Resisting this instruction caused the High Priest to feel constricted.

“That’s right.”

At that moment, Phileal felt as if his rationality had been severed.

“A woman who would have given her life for the Emperor. And now she is to be obliterated?”

“She was already dead once. Dying a second time changes nothing.”

“High Priest!”

“It’s too late!”

Phileal raised his voice unknowingly. He realized the emotion he was feeling towards the High Priest wasn’t anger. It was disappointment.

“How could you do this?”

“Do you know how ridiculous that sounds to a priest of death like me?”

“I know. That’s why it’s more disappointing.”

Phileal noticed he was crying again as his vision cleared up from tears and then blurry again. But he wasn’t ashamed to cry. He was embarrassed to have followed such a person as a father figure.

“Even if you are a priest of death, you must live by certain principles. Even if we are all flawed and barren, we have to. Without that, we can’t endure.”

Even the gentle words he had been told felt like pretense now.

“Anais Percival is in the outskirts of Reinberg Forest. You know there’s a temple of ours there.”

Upon Leviathan’s words, Phileal released the cloth he had gripped on the High Priest’s shoulder.

“Going now will only bring you regret.”

“…”

“She would be dead by now. Once Decarve’s power resides in Anais Percival’s body, it will consume you first.”

Hearing the High Priest’s calm statement, Phileal realized the emotions he thought he could no longer feel had revived. It was sorrow.

“Then I’ll die.”

Saying that, Phileal headed outside.

He was shivering with a sense of loss yet he quickened his pace trying to shake off the fear. His world had collapsed.

But to find Anais, who could become his new world.

He began to run, believing she couldn’t be dead.

* * *

“Why have the priests of death kidnapped us?”

As Anais glared at the men, one of them responded to her question.

“Put down your weapon.”

“Those beside you are nobles. Why are they cooperating?”

Anais knew she couldn’t fight in Lilith’s body. If she were truly Saint Lilith Isadora, they would have feared her. Purifying them with the Goddess of Life’s divine power would have caused the priests of death, who hated light, to suffer immensely.

But she wasn’t the real Lilith. And they vaguely knew that.

Neither Phileal nor Leviathan, who were above these priests, said anything. However, the priests of death were observant. They noticed Phileal calling her Anais casually and the High Priest’s treatment of the empress, sensing something was amiss.

“Do you want to be purified?”

“I know you can’t use divine power.”

“That was a lie. Only then would His Majesty notice me.”

“Oh, is that so? Pathetic, Lady Anais.”

Lilith rebuked Anais’s bravado. She just sat on the ground, as if tired of the situation.

“Let us go.”

Lilith’s warning prompted a noble-looking figure among the priests of death to tilt his head and respond.

“We only follow the High Priest’s orders.”

Lilith snapped back irritably at their reply.

“The saint wasn’t needed yet, as I said.”

“What does that mean?”

Anais, puzzled by Lilith’s knowledge of the situation, questioned her. But Lilith, upon making eye contact with Anais, remained silent.

“The High Priest ordered the saint to be killed immediately.”

“That can’t happen.”

“The Empress just needs to close her eyes to it.”

“No, I said no!”

The Empress stood up, annoyed. Unlike her previously nonchalant demeanor she was now genuinely frustrated.

“Didn’t I say it’s not time yet?”

“Your Majesty, as we’ve said, we follow the High Priest’s commands.”

They summoned a spear of divine power, causing Anais to step back in surprise. Her hands were still tied, making it disadvantageous to fight this way. She struggled to untie her wrists with a broken piece of glass from the commotion caused by the fallen pole.

“Listen.”

Anais needed to buy time.

“If you’re going to kill me, at least give me a reason.”

“We have no reason to tell you.”

As the priests of death advanced with their spears, Lilith urgently added.

“If I die, the High Priest will regret it too.”

Lilith, who had somehow freed her hands, now held a shard of broken glass to her throat. Glancing at Anais, who was still struggling, she sighed and said,

“Stop the nonsense and untie yourself. Unless you want to make a hole in this body.”

Anais realized her palm was cut as she moved her hands, but she couldn’t stop. Her palm was already soaked with blood.

“What exactly were you planning?”

“….Do you think I would tell you, Lady Anais?”

As Lilith responded with a mocking tone, the priest spoke up.

“Please, surrender quietly. It’s all according to the High Priest’s will.”

“Do you think I will spare you after this is over?”

Lilith’s scoffing made the priests of death chuckle mechanically as they looked at her.

Anais couldn’t grasp what was happening. However she only knew that they intended to kill her.

“If you kill me, won’t Lilith have to leave my body?”

“We won’t kill you.”

“Right, you won’t kill me because if you offer me as a sacrifice, it’s a different story.”

Lilith told Anais. Anais widened her eyes, looking for further explanation.

“Being a sacrifice is different from an ordinary death.”

“…”

“It means complete obliteration. If you become a sacrifice to the god of death, you won’t go to the afterlife.”

Lilith continued with a pained expression as her words trailed. She gulped.

“It just means both Lady Anais and my body will vanish as a sacrifice, and I will remain in this body.”

__